Delivery vehicles of various kinds are known in the art. Examples include a variety of automobiles, so-called minivans, full-size vans, a variety of trucks such as panel trucks, and trailers, to note but a few examples in these regards. As used herein, a “delivery vehicle” will be understood to carry at least one delivery person regardless of whether the vehicle itself is driven by a human or is partially or wholly autonomously navigated and driven.
In many cases a given delivery vehicle carries a plurality of items that are to be delivered to a corresponding plurality of target recipients at different delivery addresses. Accordingly, the on-board delivery person is typically responsible for delivering all of the conveyed items to all of the intended target recipients during a single delivery run. Given that recipients typically want their deliveries as soon as possible, the delivery person is typically quite busy loading, unloading, and/or rearranging the contents of the truck to get the recipients their packages in a reasonable amount of time. In addition to requesting quick delivery, recipients typically want the integrity of the items maintained during shipment of their items.
Elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. Certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. The terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.